Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has expressed his appreciation for runaway championship leader Max Verstappen, as the Dutchman is very close to winning his second Formula 1 title and could even secure the 2022 championship in the next round of the season, which is scheduled to take place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Max Verstappen has a solid 116-point advantage ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Maranello team mate Charles Leclerc with six rounds until the end of the current F1 campaign, after taking 11 race wins this years, including the last five races.
Carlos Sainz admitted that his former team mate Max Verstappen has performed at a high level during the entire season and has made just a few small mistakes, being able to capitalize on some errors made by the Maranello team and also some reliability issues suffered by the Ferrari cars:
“I think he’s had a very strong season. He’s done very little mistakes. Whenever he’s done mistakes – like in Spain, he spun in the same place than me, in Hungary he spun – he’s recovered from the mistakes and gone [on to] win. I think this is the biggest difference that even in the days that he’s had maybe a bit of an off, he still managed to go and win.” – Carlos Sainz explained.
Max Verstappen did not have a great start to the season, having to retire in two of the first three rounds in 2022. At that moment, Charles Leclerc had taken two race wins and a second place from three races, which allowed him to pull 46 points ahead of Max Verstappen. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there for the Maranello teams, who constantly hit trouble in the following races, despite having a very fast car at that stage of the season:
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“Since the first [three] races they’ve also been super-reliable and you add up all those things and he’s having an incredible season and I think he deserves it. Him as a driver, I think he’s also doing a particularly strong job.” – the Spanish driver added.
Max Verstappen has won the last five consecutive events, while Red Bull have also improved especially in terms of race pace, having the clearly faster car since the championship resumed after the summer break. However, Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted that winning all the final six Grands Prix this year would be “a massive ask” for the driver and team.
“There’s some huge variance of circuits, Singapore compared to here has got the most corners on the circuit. It’s bumpy, it’s a street track. So it’s a much different challenge. We’re in a great position in the championship, but we’re going to attack every race and do the best we can in points or take care of themselves. We’ve been quick at a Spa, a Zandvoort or a Monza, and Budapest even, so on a variance of circuits the car’s performing really well.” – the Red Bull team principal concluded, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
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